Housing has deep social implications and is part of any national shelter strategy. Hence, confronted with a market failure, the absence of provision of finance, or a deficient coverage of mortgage markets throughout the income distribution, governments are induced to choose an intervention method that may quickly yield results or at least be seen as a visible sign of a political will. Th e temptation is then great to use the state housing bank model, which has kept resurfacing in many countries, although the model often does not offer an appropriate answer to the issues underlying the market failures.